Opening of the Alaskan Territory 



io5 



shows that on occasion the sea sweeps 

 the whole site of the present city. 



This is not the only danger. An- 

 other is fire. The streets are narrow, 

 and the houses — flimsy wooden struct- 

 ures — stand in serried rows. Because 

 of the cold, there are hot fires every- 

 where. There are few brick chimneys, 

 and in winter there is no water supply. 

 If a serious fire should occur in mid- 

 winter, destroying shelter, food, and 

 fuel, no relief could reach the stricken 

 people. The nearest open port on the 

 Pacific is 500 miles to the southeast. It 

 is 1,711 miles from Dawson, with no 

 roads to either place. Bering Sea is in 

 the same latitude as the Baltic, and, like 

 the Baltic, is shallow and brackish, 

 owing to the many rivers which empty 

 fresh water and silt into it. In winter 

 surface ice readil}' forms, extending 

 300 to 400 miles south of Nome, effect- 

 ually isolating the city from November 

 1 until June 1 . 



This is unendurable, and three projects 

 are under consideration to effect com- 

 munication throughout the whole year. 

 The simplest is to maintain in Bering 

 Sea an ice-breaker of the Admiral Ermak 

 type, an easy task, as the ice is not as 

 thick and solid in Bering Sea as in the 

 northern Russian ports. The second 

 project is to build a railroad from Cook 

 Inlet or Prince William Sound on open 

 Pacific waters to Nome by way of St 

 Michael. The third plan is to connect 

 Nome by railroad with the lower Yukon 

 River, and ultimately effect a junction 

 with the railroad from Valdes to Eagle. 

 To complete this project would require 

 about 900 miles of track. 



The gold yield of the Nome region 

 has hitherto come from the sea beaches 

 and from gulches and beaches at most 

 10 miles from water transportation. 

 Even 10 miles has proved almost pro- 

 hibitive. In winter the placers are not 

 worked and the camps are closed. No 

 advantage can therefore be taken of the 

 smooth snow and ice roads. In summer 



the tundra is two or three feet of mud, 

 with a bottom of frozen ground. The 

 services of teams are worth from $20 

 to $40 a day, and it takes a whole day 

 to haul 1,500 pounds 10 miles. The 

 lowest rate is three times as much as 

 the minimum from Puget Sound to 

 Nome, 2,700 miles, and twice as much 

 as the rate from San Francisco or Puget 

 Sound to Dawson. So prohibitive were 

 the natural conditions that Mr Chas D. 

 Lane, of the Wild Goose Company, 

 considered it wise economy to devote 

 90 per cent of the output of certain 

 placer claims to a transportation sys- 

 tem, thus reducing cost of exploitation 

 for all future output to 10 per cent, 

 rather than indefinitely to spend 90 

 per cent of the yield for transportation 

 alone. 



The Wild Goose Railroad, 7 miles 

 long from Nome to Anvil Creek, earned 

 its total first cost within thirty days of 

 its opening and shows increasing earn- 

 ings each year. From Council City, on 

 the Niukluk River about 90 miles from 

 Nome, Mr Lane has built a second 

 road, also 7 miles long, connecting 

 Council with Ophir Creek, and this road 

 has also paid for itself in one season. 

 Council is 55 miles from the nearest 

 seaport, up a shallow, winding river. 

 That part of the Seward Peninsula on 

 which Nome is located, a part about 

 5,000 miles in area, was, geologically 

 speaking, very recently an island. A 

 deep indentation of the ocean runs 50 

 miles inland from Port Clarence, north- 

 west of Nome, and Golofnin Bay, about 

 70 miles east of Nome, also extends 

 many, mile's inland. These two bays 

 are joined by a deep valley, so that 60 

 miles north and inland from Nome it is 

 possible with one short portage to go 

 from sea to sea. Council City lies in 

 this depression, Ophir Creek and in- 

 numerable other rich creeks emptying 

 into it from both sides. Gold has been 

 found in paying quantities on nearly all 

 of them, but it is impossible yet to de- 



